Tokyo Vintage: Introducing GrogGrog, Koenji

If you take a walk down Koenji’s main covered street, you might pass by a green sign and a flight of stairs leading up to a vintage shop… I’d advise that you climb those stairs and discover GrogGrog!

As I think pretty much everyone is aware now, here at Tokyo Telephone we’re more than a little in love with the amazing and unique vintage shops in Japan, and now we’re happy to be able to share some of our favourites with you. We think it’s high time we celebrated these beautiful boutiques and stand-out select shops, and while we realise that not everyone is lucky enough to be able to see them first-hand in Japan, we hope that we can bring you the best bits via Tokyo Telephone.

Since our first visit to Koenji (even before we moved!) GrogGrog has been on our list of shops to check out and have a good ol’ rummage in. With typically strong vision, GrogGrog’s buyer visits the US at least once a month to cherry pick the best American vintage clothing to bring back to Japan for both the Koenji and Omiya stores. In GrogGrog you’ll find a fantastically wide variety of clothing and styles. My highlights would have to be the patterned long skirts, huge selection of boots, and carved leather bags… but there’s also long dresses, accessories and a ton of hats that I want to try on and parade around Tokyo wearing!

Without further fuss & bother, let’s take a took inside GrogGrog…

Oh, let me at those leather satchels! (Yes, I was scouting for bags while snapping these photos…)

Sample outfit – how great is the ‘cowhand’ apron?!

A wall of hats and headwear.

Lovely lucite brooches.

Matching bag and boots.

Spurs and straw hats – very different items, but in GrogGrog it works well together.

Awesome t-shirts.

And finally: exceedingly cute shop staff!

I hope you’ll join me in saying a huge ありがとうございました/thank you to GrogGrog for allowing us to come along and take lots of photos – we really appreciate it, and we hope you’ve enjoyed it too! Keep listening out for Tokyo Telephone bringing you even more vintage treasures in the near future…

Yeah, we have finally got round to shooting shops, feels good to be doing something different and really great to meet the minds behind some of the shops. Although I really regret not being able to meet the owner of Kuro-Benz (he is away in the UK of all places) when we shot there, he sounds like an interesting guy.

Good luck with your apron! You could always wear in under a baggy t-shirt or jumper so that only the bottom bit is visible and work your way up to the full on BBQ effect.